"commentator has said that Blair is to the right of centre. A YouGov opinion poll in 2005 found that a small majority of British voters, including many New Labour supporters, place Blair on the right of the political spectrum. The ""Financial Times"" on the other hand has argued that Blair is not conservative, but instead a populist. Critics and admirers tend to agree that Blair's electoral success was based on his ability to occupy the centre ground and appeal to voters across the political spectrum, to the extent that he has been fundamentally at odds with traditional Labour Party values."
"government under the leadership of Tony Blair in May 1997 after the electoral wipeout of the Conservative government, led by John Major; this ended 18 years of Conservative rule. Having secured a landslide victory with 418 seats in the House of Commons, the party had a working majority of 179 seats, and went on to win the 2001 and 2005 elections. During its first term in office Blair's government introduced many popular policies, including legislation to establish a national minimum wage, reducing the length of hospital waiting lists, and devolving lawmaking powers to Scotland and Wales. Blair also played a"
"Blairism In British politics, the term Blairism refers to the political ideology of the former leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister Tony Blair. It entered the ""New Penguin English Dictionary"" in 2000. Proponents of Blairism are referred to as Blairites. Politically, Blair has been identified with record investment into public services, an interventionist and Atlanticist foreign policy, support for stronger law enforcement powers, a large focus on surveillance as a means to address terrorism and a large focus on education as a means to encourage social mobility. In the early years (circa 1994–1997), Blairism was also associated with"
"by a democratic socialist, Jeremy Corbyn, leading one MP to comment that New Labour is ""dead and buried"". First elected to parliament as Member of Parliament (MP) for Sedgefield, County Durham at the 1983 general election, Tony Blair became the leader of the Labour Party in 1994 after winning 57% of the vote in that year's leadership election, defeating John Prescott and Margaret Beckett. His first shadow cabinet role came in November 1988, when Neil Kinnock appointed him as Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and in July 1992 was promoted to the role of Shadow Home Secretary on the"
"under Tony Blair winning a landslide election victory in 1997. Labour had shifted its policies closer to the political centre, under the new slogan 'New Labour'. The Bank of England was given independence over monetary policy and Scotland and Wales were given a devolved Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly respectively. A devolved power sharing Northern Ireland Executive was established in 1998, believed by many to be the end of The Troubles. Blair led Britain into the Afghanistan and Iraq War before leaving office in 2007, when he was succeeded by his Chancellor Gordon Brown. A global recession in 2008–10 led"
"Alliance chose 40-year-old Paul Tyler, who had been Liberal Party MP for Bodmin from February 1974 to October 1974. The Labour Party selected as its candidate an unknown and untested 29-year-old barrister called Tony Blair, an aspiring politician who had been advised by Labour MP Tom Pendry to seek the party's nomination to gain political experience. Three other candidates stood, including Tom Keen, from the Campaign for a More Prosperous Britain, who held the record for the most candidacies in a single general election, and 78-year-old by-election veteran Bill Boaks, an eccentric campaigner for road safety, who usually described himself"
"the Member of Parliament was Tony Blair; who led a successful campaign for his party to win the 1997 general election in a landslide and thereafter served for ten years as the Prime Minister, leading the campaigns at two subsequent general elections. Blair was the first Prime Minister to lead the Labour Party to three consecutive victories. He resigned as the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield on the same day as he resigned as Prime Minister, which triggered a by-election. At the by-election on 19 July 2007, the official Labour Party candidate Phil Wilson was elected on a reduced majority"
"Blair ministry Tony Blair originally formed the Blair ministry in May 1997 after being invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new government following the resignation of the previous Prime Minister, John Major of the Conservative Party, as a result of the Labour Party's landslide victory at the 1997 general election. He would serve as the Prime Minister for three successive ministries and parliamentary terms until his resignation on 27 June 2007. His Cabinet was reshuffled for each new parliament along with a few minor changes during each term. After eighteen years in opposition, Labour ousted the Conservatives at"
"Labour Party, used primarily during the period under Tony Blair's leadership. Being used first as a slogan, its first appearance in party literature was the 1996 draft manifesto, ""New Labour, New Life For Britain"". The rise of the name coincided with a rightwards shift of the British political spectrum; for Labour, this was a continuation of the trend that had begun under the leadership of Neil Kinnock. ""Old Labour"" is sometimes used by commentators to describe the older, more left-wing members of the party, or those with strong Trade Union connections. Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson, Anthony Giddens and"
"rising unemployment. After the brief stewardship of John Smith, Tony Blair was elected leader following Smith's sudden death from a heart attack in May 1994. He immediately decided to amend Clause IV, dropping Labour's commitment to public ownership of key industries and utilities, along with other socialist policies. Many members of the party were unhappy with the proposed changes and several unions considered using their block vote to kill the motion, but in the end their leaderships backed down and settled for a new clause declaring the Labour Party a ""democratic socialist party"". However, Labour had been ascendant in the"
"Beckett would also serve both in the Shadow Cabinet and then the Cabinet throughout Blair's term as leader, eventually becoming the final of the three Foreign Secretaries of the Blair ministries. The next leadership election to take place occurred when Blair resigned in June 2007; this election was won by Gordon Brown, who ran uncontested. Source 1994 Labour Party (UK) leadership election The 1994 Labour Party leadership election was held on 21 July 1994 after the sudden death of the incumbent leader, John Smith, on 12 May. Tony Blair won the leadership and became Prime Minister after winning the 1997"
"Labour Party under Blair's leadership accepted many of the neoliberal economic policies enforced by the previous Conservative governments. When Ed Miliband was elected as Leader of the Labour Party in 2010, he announced the abandonment of the New Labour agenda, and promised to return to socialism, clamp down on tax avoidance, introduce a wealth tax in the form of a Mansion Tax, raise income tax for high earners and break up the banks. The party was subsequently criticised by some, including Tony Blair himself; as straying leftwards from the ""centre ground"" of British politics, and that Miliband was a ""traditional"
"under the leadership of Tony Blair began to move towards a centrist Third Way policy platform, creating the New Labour movement. The new New Labour era is seen as ending when Blair's successor Gordon Brown lost the 2010 election to the Conservatives. Brown's successor as leader, Ed Miliband, moved the party (slightly) to the left of New Labour era position. Miliband set out his stall to ""redefine the political centre"", with pundits declaring New Labour ""dead"". The Blue Labour movement, launched in 2009, attempted to cultivate a new path for Labour centrism that would appeal to socially conservative working class"
"tipped to be the next Leader of the Conservative Party) lose their seats and the loss of all Conservative seats in Wales and Scotland; the Conservatives subsequently suffered their worst general election result of the twentieth century and their place in government was taken by Labour, led by Tony Blair, after four successive parliamentary terms of Conservative Party rule. The Conservatives did not return to government until 2010, and did not win a parliamentary majority until 2015, having had to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in order to form their first government under David Cameron. Members of the"
"with the median voter theorem). Under the leadership of Tony Blair, the British Labour Party shifted towards a market-oriented approach to political campaigning. This caused an ideological fissure within the party between advocates of the New Labour approach and traditional supporters. In terms of electoral strategy, the New Labour approach involved tailoring the ""political brand"" of the party to suit the preferences of the electorate. These preferences were chiefly ascertained by focus group studies and opinion polls. In effect, market-oriented campaigning assisted the Labour Party in making its policies consistent with the preferences of the median voter. Many traditional supporters,"
"Opinion polling for the 1997 United Kingdom general election The United Kingdom general election, 1997 saw the Labour Party win a landslide victory and end 18 years of Conservative government, with Tony Blair becoming prime minister. He had become leader of the party in July 1994, two months after the sudden death of his predecessor John Smith, and rebranded it ""New Labour"", in a move which was well received by voters and which saw the abandonment of many traditional socialist policies of the Labour Party, including the mass nationalisation of industry which had been pioneered by Clement Attlee half a"
"moderate Social Democratic Party. In 1983, Foot was replaced as party leader by Neil Kinnock, who moved the party towards the centre and away from its traditional base, accordingly with the breakdown of the post-war consensus. He was replaced as leader in 1992 by former Gaitskellite John Smith. When Tony Blair became Party Leader in 1994 and then Prime Minister in 1997, he continued to move the party towards the right, and he largely followed the Gaitskellite positions on economics and defence, ending the party's Clause IV commitment to nationalization in 1995, supporting the UK Trident programme, and retaining close"
"the red, green, anti-war, Muslim and other social constituencies radicalised by the war, in a referendum on Tony Blair"". The two main instigators of the party were Yaqoob and ""The Guardian"" journalist George Monbiot. They had been part of a discussion surrounding the unification of a broad range of anti-war forces that were to the left of Labour, a successor to the Socialist Alliance electoral list that had contested the 2001 general election. They wanted to reach out beyond the far left's traditional support base and gain support from peace activists and religious groups, particularly the Muslim community. In November"
"led by Tony Blair, won the general election by a landslide after 18 years of Conservative government, and inherited a strong economy with low inflation, falling unemployment, and a current account surplus. Four days after the election, Gordon Brown, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, gave the Bank of England the freedom to control monetary policy, which until then had been directed by the government. During Blair's 10 years in office there were 40 successive quarters of economic growth, lasting until the second quarter of 2008. GDP growth, which had briefly reached 4% per year in the early 1990s, gently"
"lasted from June 2001 to May 2005. Also attending Cabinet: The third Blair ministry lasted from May 2005 to June 2007. Also attending Cabinet: Members of the Cabinet are in bold face. General Blair ministry Tony Blair originally formed the Blair ministry in May 1997 after being invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new government following the resignation of the previous Prime Minister, John Major of the Conservative Party, as a result of the Labour Party's landslide victory at the 1997 general election. He would serve as the Prime Minister for three successive ministries and parliamentary terms until"
"Party from 1983 to 1992, initiated Labour's rightward shift across the political spectrum by concurring largely with the economic policies of the Thatcher governments. The New Labour government of Tony Blair has been described as ""neo-Thatcherite"" by some since many of their economic policies mimicked those of Thatcher. The coalition government of Cameron and Clegg, that came into office in 2010 has been described as Neoliberal, with neoliberal """" Liberal Democrats playing key ministerial roles. The Administration of Ronald Reagan, from 1981 to 1989, made a range of decisions that served to liberalize (in contemporary US terminology, this is more"
"party leader in 1992, but his death from heart attack in 1994 led the way for Tony Blair to become Labour leader. Blair brought the party closer to the political centre and abolished the party's Clause IV in their constitution, which had committed them to mass nationalisation of industry. Labour also reversed its policy on unilateral nuclear disarmament and the events of Black Wednesday allowed Labour to promise greater economic management under the Chancellorship of Gordon Brown. A manifesto, entitled New Labour, New Life For Britain was released in 1996 and outlined 5 key pledges: Disputes within the Conservative government"
"the left and the right in the Party. Jim Mortimer and Larry Whitty worked hard to keep the Party together after the formation of the Social Democratic Party and the rise of the Militant tendency. Whitty oversaw the reforms of Neil Kinnock and stayed on until the election of Tony Blair as Leader. It would be Tom Sawyer who would put in place Blair's New Labour reforms, with the creation of the National Policy Forum, the change to Clause IV and the perceived erosion of the power of grassroots members. He opened new offices in Millbank and created a highly-professional,"
"the Labour Party. In a 2001 interview with ""Reason"", he said, in 1979, that even though he was a member of the Labour Party, that he wasn't going to vote for the Labour Party, nor could he bring himself to ""vote conservative."" He didn't vote at all in that election. He also stated that by not voting for the Labour Party he was effectively voting for Margaret Thatcher to win, which he said he had ""secretly hoped would happen."" In a 2005 ""Vanity Fair"" article, he endorsed Tony Blair in the 2005 general election, mainly due to his support for"
"managed by Alastair Campbell and Peter Mandelson. Between the 1992 election and the 1997 election there had also been major steps to modernise the party, including scrapping Clause IV that had committed the party to extending public ownership of industry. Labour had suddenly seized the middle ground of the political spectrum, attracting voters much further to the right than their traditional working class or left wing support. In the early hours of 2 May 1997 a party was held at the Royal Festival Hall, in which Blair stated that ""a new dawn has broken, has it not?"". The election was"
"the May 1997 election with a 179-seat majority. The Prime Minister Tony Blair, who turned 44 years old days after leading Labour to victory, was the youngest Prime Minister of the twentieth century. Blair quickly wiped away memories of the troubled Labour governments led by Harold Wilson and James Callaghan in the 1960s and 70's as the economic recovery continued and unemployment continued to fall. While other developed countries, notably Japan, were hit by a financial crisis during Blair's first term in office, the British economy remained strong. In September 2000, however, protests against fuel prices intensified across the country"
"a Welsh Assembly was also approved, by a narrow majority. The first elections were held, and these bodies began to operate, in 1999. The creation of these bodies widened the differences between regions, especially in areas such as healthcare. Tony Blair became the Leader of the Labour Party in 1994, and served as Prime Minister from 1997–2007. With Gordon Brown, he founded the movement known as New Labour. In domestic policy, Blair sought to modernise Britain's public services, encourage enterprise and innovation in its private sector and keep the economy open to international commerce. The Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh"
"in a generation. However, the strong economic recovery failed to make much difference to the dismal Conservative performance in the opinion polls. Labour leader John Smith died of a sudden heart attack in May 1994 and was succeeded by Tony Blair, who continued the modernisation process of the party which began under Smith's predecessor Neil Kinnock, by branding the party as: ""New Labour"", and by the end of that year the opinion polls were showing Labour support as high as 60% – putting them more than 30 points ahead of the Conservatives. With the Conservative government remaining divided on Europe"
"act as leader in 1994 was finally to abolish Clause IV – for this and other acts he was supported by the elderly Roy Jenkins, who had become a Liberal Democrat by then. Like Gaitskell before him, Blair was often seen by many of his enemies in the Labour Party as a public-school educated, middle-class interloper. Tony Benn contrasted Gaitskell's stand on the Suez Crisis to that of the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the war in Iraq. Margaret Thatcher compared Blair with Gaitskell in a different manner, warning her party when Blair came to power that he"
"prime minister Tony Blair, with a large parliamentary majority. A new leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, David Trimble, initially perceived as a hardliner, brought his party into the all-party negotiations which in 1998 produced the Belfast Agreement (""Good Friday Agreement""), signed by eight parties on 10 April 1998, although not involving Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party or the UK Unionist Party. A majority of both communities in Northern Ireland approved this Agreement, as did the people of the Republic of Ireland, both by referendum on 22 May 1998. The Republic amended its constitution, to replace a claim it made"
"to Kinnock's negative media image, Labour was defeated at the 1987 and 1992 general elections, and he was succeeded by Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, John Smith . Shadow Home Secretary Tony Blair became Leader of the Labour Party after John Smith's sudden death from a heart attack in 1994. He continued to move the Labour Party towards the ""centre"" by loosening links with the unions and continuing many of Margaret Thatcher's neoliberal policies. This coupled with the professionalising of the party machine's approach to the media, helped Labour win a historic landslide at the 1997 general election, after eighteen"
"general election – which it won by a landslide under the leadership of Tony Blair to return to government after 18 years in opposition. In 1998 Hucknall was named in a list of those who donated more than £5,000 to the party. In 2003, Hucknall backed Tony Blair's stance on Operation Iraqi Freedom, claiming he had ""more respect for Blair than ever"" and pointed out that British critics of the war were lucky to be living in a country where they could express their opinions. However, he claimed in 2008 that his conscience prevented him from donating to the party"
"trends showed they were regaining strength under Smith's strong leadership. Meanwhile, the breakaway SDP merged with the Liberal Party. The new Liberal Democrats seemed to pose a major threat to the Labour base. Tony Blair (the Shadow Home Secretary) had an entirely different vision. Blair, the leader of the ""modernising"" faction (Blairites), argued that the long-term trends had to be reversed, arguing that the party was too locked into a base that was shrinking, since it was based on the working-class, on trade unions, and on residents of subsidised council housing. Blairites argued that the rapidly growing middle class was"